The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) (15 page)

Ty shrugged and turned off the VR console. "I was playing a game."

"Playing too many games will make you stupid," Rober said. "I arranged some alone time for you and Maya. Giles' brothers are coming."

Ty sat down on the sofa and fiddled with the VR glasses. "Why do you think I want alone time with her?"

"Come on, you admitted you liked her," Rober said. "I saw you get all nervous around her last night."

"You're imagining it." Ty leaned back on the sofa. "There's no point getting to know her better. She'll be gone as soon as I can arrange a hovercraft for her back to her town. And I'm dating your sister."

Rober sat down beside him. "I think Maya could be a valuable ally in our plans to save the planet once she learns to control her gift."

Ty turned to him. "She won't learn that at my mother's facility."

"Why? I'm sure she'll learn something."

She'll never be able to leave, that's why.
Ty didn't say it. What went on in his mother's facility was a well-kept secret. Even the panel families didn't know much beyond the fact that it was a place to study those born with special gifts. As far as Ty knew, none of them had any idea of the type of tests his mother performed there. She sure forbade him to ever speak of it. Telling Maya or Rober about it would incur the worst wrath and punishment his mother could offer.
 

"I might be able to get her to another school. If not, she goes home," Ty said with finality. "Besides, I don't think I should get between her boyfriend and her."

Rober looked confused. "Boyfriend? You mean Giles? I don't think they're together."

Ty shook his head. "You're just saying that."

"No, I'm not. If anything she seems to keep her distance from him. I think she kind of likes you back." Rober stood up and tried to pull Ty up too. "Let's go and see her. The least you can do is get to know her a little better. Don't you want to?"

Why was Rober being so accommodating? Ty didn't ask, because the last thing he wanted was another of those reproachful conversations with Rober. What harm could it do, really, to spend some more time with Maya before she was gone? Maybe once she was safely back home he could even visit her from time to time.

Four SFs stood by the entrance to Rober's apartment. Inside, two strange men sat with Maya and Giles on the sofa. They all turned when Ty and Rober entered, fear the predominant emotion on the newcomers' faces. One glance at their hands revealed they both had missing fingers, exactly like Giles.

Ty stood rooted to the spot by the door while Rober went to whisper something to Maya. She followed him back to Ty, Giles staring after her angrily.
 

"Why don't you show Maya the garden, Ty?" Rober suggested.

Ty tried to meet Maya's eyes, but she kept hers fixed on Rober. "If she wants to go."

It was such a stupid thing to say.
 

"I do," she replied.
 

Rober escorted them to the elevator. Ty's throat went dry, his palms sweaty.

Maya peered around the elevator, her eyes widening as the numbers flashed into the hundreds. "How far up are we going?"

"The Orsinis' garden is on the roof, so 200
th
floor, I think," Ty muttered.

The elevator opened into a clearing surrounded by tall pines. Maya exclaimed and ran out into the soft grass, stopping by a pine tree to feel its branches. "Are these real?"

Ty walked over and touched a branch too. "Yes. I mean, I don't know if they're all fabricated, or if some are planted. Probably all fabricated. My sister Eve plants her own flowers. More often than not they grow into small, stunted things."

She whirled to face him so fast her hand slammed into his. The jolt felt like being punched, only in the heart. "If you can fabricate such forests, why do the Badlands exist at all? Why don't you come help us plant such forests there?"

Finally a question Ty could answer. "It's been tried. Not many of the trees and plants ever took. The Earth can't support them anymore."

She seemed on the verge of tears. He pointed at the sky and she followed with her gaze. Wispy white clouds covered a perfect light blue sky. "That's a hologram. This forest is sealed inside the building and the conditions are carefully controlled. The trees could never exist naturally otherwise."

"For a moment, I thought…never mind. We can explore the forest though, right?"

Ty nodded and she took off running into the trees. Ty followed more slowly.
She doesn't want me here with her. She can't run away fast enough.

A few minutes later she called him. He found her sitting on a moss covered stone by a bubbling spring. "Water is the source of all life. Out there in the Badlands, it has gone all out of control. I think if we cure the water, the Earth will heal itself."

Ty's breath caught in his throat. She sounded exactly like someone talking about their special gifts when they were first brought to the facility, before they learned what lay in store for them there. He'd listened to them so many times, all those poor people who came to the facility, thinking they were serving humanity by exposing their gifts. Before his mother started her experiments on them.

Maya was peering at him like she was waiting for an answer, her knee resting against his thigh. She didn't move it, and neither did he. He asked her to repeat her question. "I meant to ask you last night…how is your tiger?"

"She's fine now. I already let her out into her enclosure. I hope I'll be able to coax her out when it's time to remove the stitches."

"You keep her in a place like this?"

Ty looked around. "Not quite like this. It's a desert, with a few oases, about half as large as this garden."

Maya laid her hand on his thigh, then removed it hastily and ran her fingers through her hair. "Wouldn't it be nice if she could roam free in her own natural habitat?"

Ty's leg still tingled from her touch. A strand of Maya's hair hung down over her eyes. Ty almost brushed it back behind her ear. "It would. But all the reports and studies done over the last forty years say the same thing, that there's no way back for Earth. Serious preparations are being made to leave the planet and settle elsewhere."

She grabbed his arm, dug her fingers in painfully. "I know. It's a terrible idea. I know Earth can be saved."

Ty stared at the water trickling over the stones. "How can you know?"

He wished he hadn't said it, because her whole face contorted in annoyance.

Ty looked into her eyes, willing some of the ice in his to calm her. "I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you something different."

She let go of his arm, holding his gaze. "Well, it's not your fault."

Couldn't he help? Couldn't he do as Rober and his group suggested, try to save the Earth? Hopeful excitement fired up in his chest… until he remembered Eve, and Julian, and all those delegates fearing execution right now. Ty couldn't do anything to help the Badlands. He had to stick close to his mother, and keep his own emotions locked away tight in the chest, just like Salvio ordered. Or all would fall apart.
 

What kind of future did any one of them have stuck on some hostile planet? By helping Maya live her dream, there could be a future in that. For all of them.

Maya looked at him impatiently, then sighed. "Rober said you work with your mother at the school. I heard you look exactly like her too. Me, I don't look like either of my parents."

The mention of his mother jolted him back to reality.

"More precisely my mother looks like me," he said.

"That's an arrogant thing to say. She gave birth to you." Red spots rose on her cheeks.

Ty laughed. "She also changed her appearance to match mine when I was about seven."

"Why?"

Ty shrugged his shoulder. "She loves me, I guess. Or to show she favored me as heir, over my older brother." The second part was true. Ty never believed his mother was capable of love.
 

"I think that's a very nice thing to do," Maya insisted.
 

Ty didn't. He still wished his mother hadn't made herself into his copy. Still hoped she'd change back some day. People disliked Ty on sight before even giving him a chance because he looked like her. His father didn't much like it either. But his mother never cared what other people thought. He couldn't tell Maya all that, so he just shrugged.

"And you are the heir, right?" she asked.

Ty tossed a pebble into the water, watched the ripples fan out and disappear. "Only because my older brother had an accident."

Maya laid her hand on his thigh. "That's awful. What happened to him?"

Ty looked at her eyes, at the vast, warm life there. "I wasn't here when it happened. They said he fell and hit his head. He was only twelve, and he basically stayed a child forever. It took him years to relearn how to speak and feed himself."

"Couldn't they cure him?" Maya asked, real compassion in her eyes, Ty knew.

"No. Some injuries are still too grave, especially brain injuries." He laid his hand over hers. "I was in Africa with my father when it happened. I found Isis there. She was only a baby, trying to get milk from her dead mother. My father let me keep her, and I was so excited to show it to Julian when I got back…"

Ty's voice cracked on the last sentence. He kept his eyes focused on the water, hoping the cramp in his throat would give soon.
 

Maya shifted beside him.
 

Likely because I'm such a soft crybaby.

She put her arms around him and hugged him gently. Her hair smelled of open air and freedom. "Suffering makes us stronger. I know your pain of watching someone you love get hurt and being powerless to help."

He leaned into her, still not trusting his voice to speak. They stayed like that for a few more moments, then she let go.
 

"Please take me to your mother's school, Ty."
 

Her hug had melted something inside him. Something he didn't even know was frozen. "I can't do that."

She looked at him questioningly, tears forming in her eyes.
 

"I can help you in other ways. Maybe even find a better school for you. Please trust me."

"Why isn't this school alright?"

"Another would be better," Ty said. He reached over this time and brushed the strand of hair from her eyes.
 

She squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry if I came across too forcefully. Learning to use my gift properly is something I've dreamed about since I can remember. I'm so close now."

Her hand still rested in his palm, but she let go.
 

"I understand."

He let go of her hand too, and after a few moments Maya rose. "We should get back. I'd like to say goodbye to Giles' brothers."

Ty rose too and followed her to the elevator, wishing they could stay in the garden and talk all night.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Giles' brothers were already gone by the time they returned to the apartment. Ty said goodbye at the front door, and she didn't ask him to come in. She had wanted to. He was looking at her like maybe he wanted her to ask too. Then the moment passed and Rober opened the apartment door. The elevator door rippled shut after Ty.

"You had a good time, then?" Giles asked once they were alone, an edge to his voice.
 

Maya shrugged, still thinking she should have maybe asked Ty in.

"You haven't asked me how my brothers' visit went, or anything," Giles complained.
 

"Well, did it go well?"
 

Ty didn't want to let go of my hand back in the forest.
 

Giles' cheeks turned red.
 

"Will they be able to lend you the money for your hands?" Maya asked hastily.

Giles deflated a bit. "They said the procedure costs more than everything they own is worth. It's why neither of them had it done yet."

"Don't worry, we'll find a way."

Giles looked down at his hands. "Probably not. It was great seeing them after all this time. They were so on edge, though. Getting summoned by the Orsinis is not something people aspire to. They said Rober sent three of those Special Forces guys to get them in the middle of the workday. All their customers saw them get dragged off. I hope they got back home safely." Giles was out of breath by the time he finished speaking.

Maya stared at him. "I'm sure they did, Giles. Why wouldn't they? Rober's alright."

Giles got up off the sofa, glaring down at her. "I'm so glad you found some new best friends."

He strode off, not waiting for a reply.
 

Maya leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes. Ty's searching eyes was all she saw, Ty brushing her hair away from her eyes, squeezing her hand. She opened her eyes and fixed them on the window, which today showed peaceful white clouds against a perfectly blue sky. Almost the color of Ty's eyes. Only warmer, not cold and dead.

She rose halfway to go apologize to Giles, then sat back down, wary of another fight. She never meant to hurt him, didn't want to keep opening the wound that was his love for her. She didn't love him back. Only now, it started to seem like Giles would never understand that.

She fell asleep on the sofa, waiting to give Giles enough time to fall asleep too.
 

Giles woke her the next morning with a hot cup of tea. "I'm sorry about how I acted last night. I was on edge from the visit."

Maya took the cup, lacing her fingers around it. "Giles, let's not argue all the time."

He sat next to her, blowing on his own cup of tea. They sat side by side like that for a few minutes in silence until Maya could no longer stand it. "Look, Ty can help me prepare to enter that school. Once I'm there at least I'll know someone. He doesn't seem so bad, really he doesn't."

Giles took a sip of his tea, and looked into the far end of the room. "I don't think that any school run by
his
mother could possibly be a good place."

Maya's stomach clenched. Any mention of Ty's mother always carried an edge of fear. "He says he'll take me to a different school."